ScienceDaily: Matter & Energy News

Researchers have discovered a giant thermoelectric effect in an antiferromagnet. The study shows, surprisingly, that antiferromagnets can have the same value of the anomalous Nernst effect as conventional ferromagnets, but without any stray magnetic fields that would otherwise affect surrounding devices. The newly discovered recipe for generating large Nernst voltages opens a new research direction for the development of highly efficient thermoelectric devices.

An international research team that synthesized a new ultrahard form of carbon glass with a wealth of potential practical applications for devices and electronics. It is the hardest known glass with the highest thermal conductivity among all glass materials.

Since the discovery of quasicrystals (QCs), solids that mimic crystals in their long-range order but lack periodicity, scientists have sought physical properties related to their peculiar structure. Now, an international group of researchers report a long-range magnetic order in QCs with icosahedral symmetry that turn ferromagnetic below certain temperatures. This groundbreaking discovery opens doors to future research on these exotic materials.

A combined experimental and computational study shows promising results for a new class of catalysts producing ammonia under mild conditions.

Quantum dots have many possible applications, but they are limited by their tendency to blink off at random intervals. Chemists have come up with a way to control this unwanted blinking without requiring any modification to the formulation or the manufacturing process.

Engineers have invented a breakthrough optical phase modulator that controls visible light -- without dimming it -- with the smallest footprint and lowest power consumption. New device will improve LIDAR for remote sensing, AR/VR goggles, quantum information processing chips, implantable optogenetic probes, and more.

Demonstrating that a material thought to be always chemically inert, hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), can be turned chemically active holds potential for a new class of catalysts with a wide range of applications, according to an international team of researchers.

New highly sensitive quantum sensors for the brain may in the future be able to identify brain diseases such as dementia, ALS and Parkinson's, by spotting a slowing in the speed at which signals travel across the brain.